Insight and debate at 15th Public Uni event

Cardiff University held its 15^th Public Uni event at Chapter Arts Centre on Friday 31 March 2017.

The Public Uni series is co-organised by Cardiff Business School’s Dr Marco Hauptmeier and Dr Harriet Lloyd from the School of English, Communication and Philosophy. It provides an informal environment for academics to translate their current thinking and research into bite-size chunks, for a public audience.

The topics for the Public Uni events vary and a host of diverse researchers have taken part in previous sessions. This time Dr Hauptmeier and Dr Lloyd were pleased to welcome speakers from Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Swansea University.

This was the first time non-Cardiff University academics took part in proceedings and demonstrates how the Public Uni series has grown since its inception in 2014.

Each speaker is given just 10 minutes to impart their research in a digestible format, paying particular attention to the social, economic and political impact of their work. The latest group to take on the Public Uni challenge were:

• Dr Maneesh Kumar, reader and Executive MBA program director at Cardiff Business School, addressed the dark side of variation and metrics providing insight into how the emphasis on these elements are affecting productivity and sales turnover of many small and big businesses in the UK.
• Ms Laia Gines, PhD student at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, discussed diamonds, considering their creation and application, paying attention to the fact that at one point they were only delivered by nature but since the 20^th century have been scientifically manufactured through new technologies.
• Dr Robert Mayr, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Cardiff metropolitan University, looked at how many people who learn a second language speak it with a foreign accent and considered whether it is possible to become foreign-accented in your native language.
• Dr Ceryn Evans, research associate at the Wales Institute of Social & Economic (WISERD), asked whether going to university makes ‘good citizens’ out of people and if graduates are more likely to ‘take part’ in their local communities, and promote social benefits, than non-graduates.
• Dr Christoph Laucht, from the Modern Department of History at Swansea University, introduced a timely discussion as Britain proceeds with Brexit, considering the ‘politics of the unknown’ through the lens of the nuclear threat in Britain during the Cold War. He argued that uncertainty has long been a central component of political debate.

The next Public Uni event will take place at 7.30pm, Friday 26 May 2017. All of the events are free, the topics are varied, the debate is collegiate and the only entry requirement is an inquisitive mind.

Find out more about the Public Uni series on Facebook.

If you would like to present at one of the forthcoming Public Uni events, please get in touch with Marco Hauptmeier or Harriet Lloyd.